Lesson Plan

There’s little doubt Kellee Booth could make a comfortable living playing professional golf. A three-time All-American at Arizona State (almost certainly on her way to a fourth such honor), Booth has risen to the top of the game at every level: junior, amateur and collegiate.

So as she enters her final month of college golf ranked third in the nation, Booth is starting to plan her next step. The surprise is that it might not be the LPGA Tour.

Would you believe graduate school?

Booth has applied to Arizona State’s MBA program. If accepted, she says she probably will postpone her professional golf career and continue to hone her game as an amateur for two years.

“I do want to play the tour, most definitely,” Booth said, “but I’m not sure if it’s the right thing to do right away. I mean, I really want to be ready. I want to go out there and play well and not struggle.”

But first there’s the business at hand, which is Booth’s final three college tournaments. Monday through Wednesday, she and the second-ranked Sun Devils will play in the Pacific 10 Conference Championship at Tijeras Creek.

USC is the tournament host, but it’s more of a home course to Booth than anyone else in the field.

“I played it almost every single match in high school [Santa Margarita],” she said, “and I think it’s to my advantage.”

Also to Booth’s advantage is the confidence boost she received this month at the Ping/ASU Invitational, where she tied Stanford’s Hilary Homeyer for the title.

It was Booth’s first collegiate victory, and was her first individual victory in nearly four years.

It’s hard to figure how Booth could endure such a streak, considering she won so frequently early in her career. In 1993-94, she won 10 junior tournaments, including the 1993 U.S. Girls’ Junior title at Mesa Verde.

And it’s not as if Booth has struggled as a college player--she has 26 top 10 finishes--she just had trouble winning. “To see it take this long was really surprising,” Arizona State Coach Linda Vollstedt said. “She was always in position to win and if you keep doing that, it’s eventually going to happen. I think now she’s definitely ready to win some more.”

The breakthrough victory relieves some of the pressure at a perfect time. After Tijeras Creek, Booth and the Sun Devils have the NCAA West Regional in Palo Alto (May 7-9) and the NCAA Championships in Madison, Wis. (May 20-23).

“The neat thing is that she birdied the last two holes to win,” Vollstedt said, “and to me that really indicates that she’s ready for the whole thing.”

The birdie on the 18th hole at Arizona State’s Karsten course came on a 20-foot putt and had Booth pumping her fist. It capped a great day of putting--she made six putts of 10 feet or longer--and provided a sense of relief.

“It was getting kind of rough there for a while,” Booth said, “because there were tournaments where I was playing really well and it just wasn’t good enough.”

Booth said her desire to win might have prolonged her drought.

“I’ve wanted to win so bad for so long,” she said. “And because I wanted it so much, it might have gotten in my thoughts, ‘Oh, I have a chance to do it, I better do it now while I can,’ and I think maybe it threw me off my true focus, which was the next shot.

“But in some instances it was that person made an eagle or a birdie and that was the difference.”

Then again, Booth said, her focus on school work might have hindered her game. “It is very difficult to balance school and golf,” she said, “especially to try to do it in four years like I have. My education has always come first and that’s where maybe I haven’t spent the time I needed to have spent on the golf course.”

However, it has paid off in other ways. Booth, a business management major with a minor in sociology, has a 3.55 grade-point average and will graduate with honors next month.

Soon after, it’s decision time. “I find out a lot of things in June,” she said. “I find out whether or not I make the Curtis Cup team. I find out whether or not I get into grad school. I find out whether I get the scholarships to pay for grad school.

“I think those things are going to be determining factors in how I make my decision.”

She has firm plans to play amateur tournaments this summer. If she makes her second Curtis Cup team and does well in the summer tournaments, she has a good chance at making her second appearance for the U.S. team at the World Amateur Team Championship. Playing in that competition, in Chile in November, would preclude her from LPGA qualifying, which starts in September.

The LPGA can wait.

“Being a tour player hasn’t been something that’s been a burning desire for her,” Vollstedt said. “It’s something she knows is there and is always going to be there, but she’s certainly not going to jump right into it until she’s definitely ready to go.”

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Women’s Golf

* What: Pacific 10 Conference Women’s Golf Championships

* When: Monday-Wednesday. Monday and Tuesday tee times are 8 a.m., Wednesday 9 a.m.

* Where: Tijeras Creek Golf Club, 29082 Tijeras Creek, Rancho Santa Margarita

* Participants: Teams in order of seeding: Arizona State (defending national champions and No. 2 in the MasterCard College Golf rankings), Arizona (defending Pac-10 champions and ranked No. 3 nationally), Stanford (ranked No. 5), Oregon (No. 9), USC (No. 14), UCLA (No. 17), Oregon State (No. 19), Washington (No. 35), Washington State (No. 43), California

* Admission: Free

* Notes: Arizona State has finished first or second in 45 of 58 tournaments dating back to 1992-93. Sun Devil freshman Grace Park is the nation’s top-ranked individual player; teammate Kellee Booth is ranked third. . . . A practice round will take place Sunday at Tijeras Creek (Par 72/6,220 yards). . . . The three-round competition will be scored by stroke play. Each team will consist of five players, with the four lowest scores each round counting toward the team total. . . . An awards ceremony and the announcement of the 1998 All-Pac-10 team follows completion of tournament. . . . USC is the tournament’s host school.

* Information: Tijeras Creek Golf Club, (714) 589-9793